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ADDRESS 



■DEPARTMENT COMMANDER 



SAMUEL S. BURDETT 



16th Annual Encampment 



DEPARTMENT OF THE POTOMAC, 



GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, 



Wasljingtoij, D. C, January 30, 1884. 







GIBSON BROTHERS.. PRINTERS: 

1884. 






I 



S.S, rr ' \ 

| Washington, P. C. 



ADDRESS 

OF 

Department Commander Samuel S. Burdett, 

AT THE 

16th Annual Encampment 

OF THE 

Department of the Potomac, G. A. R. 

Washington, D. C, Jan. 30, 1884. 



Comrades: For the second time it is ray pleasure to stand in 
your chief place to give an account of the progress of the affairs 
committed to my charge as Commander of the Department of the 
Potomac, and to preside whilst you, who compose its governing 
body, determine its future course, and select those upon whom 
the trust of office is to be imposed for the ensuing year. 

The year now closing has been one of prosperity for the Grand 
Arrny of the Republic in this Department. I think I may say that 
in every essential particular that makes for our good, both in the 
Posts and in the Department proper, there has been substantial 
progress. I shall turn over the trust I hold to the successor you 
will this evening select, proud of the individuals who compose its 
ranks, of the Posts which represent its primary organizations, and 
of the Department which is its whole, and with but the single re- 
gret that I have not been better able to serve both Comrades, 
Posts, and Department. 

The particulars of our state and condition as an organized society 
you will learn from the reports of the Assistant Adjutant- General, 



of the Assistant Quartermaster- General, and of the other officers 
comprising the staff. 

Generally I may say as to membership that at our last Annual 
Encampment I reported to you that our numbers were 1,439 ; we 
now number 1,674, a gain of 235 in the past year. The gain in 
the past two years has been 834, which lacks but six of being as 
many as at the beginning of that period stood on our rolls. 

The largest gain made during the year was by Post No. 5. which 
reports an increase by new musters of 115. 

A scrutiny of the returns of the several Posts will show that, as 
a rule, the ranks have been cleared of useless and careless files by 
dropping out such as by failure to pay the small sum required as 
dues had, by our law, made themselves subject to that penalty. 
This course is honest and therefore commendable. It cuts down, 
perhaps, the number of the Posts' representatives in the Depart- 
ment Encampment, but it relieves the faithful Comrades of the 
Posts from the necessity, for that purpose, of paying the Depart- 
ment dues of the unworthy; and enables us all to know just what. 
for all desirable ends, the strength of the Department is. If this 
course continues to be pursued, I know of but one other requisite 
to continue the solid success we now enjo}*, and that is that whilst 
the weeds that are in our fields are being plucked up and cast out, 
and all proper energy is used to gather in other good material, 
that the black-ball be faithfully and fearlessly used to keep from 
entering those who are unworthy I know of no act which seems 
to me to be so indescribably mean and cowardly as the use of the 
black-ball for personal ends, and especially for revengeful pur- 
poses. To wound a good man from behind such a cover requires 
the assassin's instinct ; nevertheless, to cast it against the unworthy 
is a high duty. 

An examination of the returns made by the several Posts of 
Comrades entitled to seats in the Department Encampment has 
convinced me that there is cause to believe that a number of those 
so returned as entitled to seats as Past Post Commanders may not 
be so entitled. Whether they are so entitled or not is a delicate 
question, not altogether free from difficulty, and one upon which 
there ought not to be action until there has been a most full and 
dispassionate inquiry by a committee of discreet Comrades. I 
should have been pleased if I could have passed this subject over 



without remark, but at the last hour I conclude that to do so 
would be to leave a duty undone. I recommend that this En- 
campment raise a proper committee to examine and report upon 
the matter, notifying all Comrades affected, and hearing them in 
■defense of their right to sit. That the report be made to the 
next semi-annual Encampment, when, as there will be no exciting 
causes to be tried, there will be time for discussion, and circum- 
stances warranting an unprejudiced judgment. 



THE NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT. 



The Grand Arrny of the Republic now numbers about a quarter 
•of a million Comrades. Its splendid array is composed of every 
element that makes up the loyal society of the country it saved. 
As in the day that it gathered at the call of patriotism it stood 
forth the very flower of the country's youth, to-day they who sur- 
vive are the choice fruit of the autumn fast coming on. 

It is a rare privilege to stand in the midst of the assembled 
representatives of the Grand Army of the Republic when met in 
National Encampment. A tempest of recoDections are set free in 
flight ; a world of anxious hope for our country's future is inspired 
by the presence, shoulder to shoulder once again, of the remnant 
of that mountain of strength and patiiotism, whose resolution was 
never shaken in the darkest hour, whose resistless bravery knew 
no faltering whilst a single traitorous American held yet in grasp 
a weapon against his country. 

The last Annual Encampment held at Denver, Colorado, was in 
the matter of attendance, personnel, and general interest, the equal 
at least of any that have preceded it. Very full reports of its pro- 
ceedings have been printed, and are so generally accessible that I 
do not feel called upon, and would not be justified in repeating 
them here. A scrutiny of them will show that this Department 
was fully represented, and that it bore an honorable part in its 
deliberations. The next National Encampment will meet at Min- 
neapolis, in the State of Minnesota. It will be a rare privilege to 
be there, to be among the Northmen whose patriotism and hospi- 
tality is as hot and full as the breath of their winter is cold and 
the ice of then lakes is strong. The far East has seen our gath- 
erings ; the West has witnessed our array ; the march is set for 
the North. Some day before silence comes over all the ranks let 



us hope to see the South again, but not until that time, not yet 
come, when every American there may walk erect and go his way 
without submitting to the censorship of any ; not because he is a 
Southerner, but because he is an American. 



THE RELIEF PROBLEM. 



The recommendations made by me a year since relative to a- 
system of relief, which were adopted by the Encampment, after a. 
year's trial, have, I think, been found to work well. The commit- 
tee's report will advise you of particulars, and of a suggestion now 
made that the committee be continued, but consist only of the 
Commander, Assistant Adjutant- General, and Assistant Quarter- 
master-General. This suggestion grows out of the fact that, 
though others were appointed, they seldom gave us the aid of 
their presence. In this respect exception should be made as to 
Comrade Rothery, of Post 5, who is always faithfully at his post, 
and ready to do more than his fair share of duty. 

The suggestion as to who shall compose the Department Relief 
Committee for the coming year is, of course, in the nature of a- 
report only of what last year's experience suggests. I do not rec- 
ommend that the Encampment take formal action upon it, but do 
recommend that the incoming Department Commander be left free 
to exercise his own judgment in that particular matter, and, to that 
end, that the resolution adopted at the last Encampment be con- 
tinued as the law of the case. Upon the general subject I have 
only this further to say, that if the Posts have faithfully refrained 
from entertaining the applications for relief of those not immedi- 
ately connected with them, as I believe they have, and as was 
the intention when the present system was adopted, that a de- 
cided advance on the right road has been made. The tramp ele- 
ment which has heretofore swarmed about the Posts, as well as 
about the Department, has been met with firm denial by the De- 
partment Committee. The record of all former dispensations of 
charity having been compiled by the Assistant Adjutant- General, 
many of these professed strangers, who were never in Washington 
• since they marched through to join this and that army," have 
been confronted with the proof that they have, in fact, before 
received its charity. The result is that the fraternity of bad men, 
many of whom, unfortunately, wear the Grand Army badge, who 



spend their time between the different National Homes and the 
rum mills which are their chief delight, and whose only occupation 
is to besiege Comrades, Posts, and Departments for money with 
which to feed then- vices, have become known to us, and, happily 
for us, are learning to avoid us. 

HEADQUARTERS. 

The authority given, upon my request, by the last Encampment, 
to remove Department Headquarters has not yet been exercised. 
The reason is that the result of inquiry for proper rooms in a 
desirable locality disclosed that the rent of such quarters would 
be not less than $25 or $30 per month, adding to this sum the 
amount that would necessarily be required, in case of removal, for 
new or additional furniture and fixtures, and then comparing these 
sums with the small amount now paid, the committee concluded 
that it would be best to remain in our present headquarters for 
one more year. 

But it is a problem yet to be met. If not voluntarily met, it 
will, before many months, be forced upon the Department. The 
flourishing condition of the Posts occupying the premises of 
which, for rental purposes, present headquarters form a part, ren- 
ders it almost certain that before many months they will seek 
other and more suitable accommodations for themselves. In that 
case headquarters must go also. I recommend, therefore, that the 
authority last year delegated to a committee composed of the De- 
partment Commander, the Assistant Adjutant-General, and the 
Assistant Quartermaster-General to make the removal then con- 
templated be continued in full foi'ce. Whether compelled to move 
or not, the Department ought to have better quarters. It is able 
to afford them, and I believe I shall speak the mind of this entire 
Encampment, if I say that the new administration will be sustained 
in immediately finding and renting good and convenient quarters. 

At the last semi-annual Encampment the question of securing a 
hall and premises suited to the general uses of the Department 
was submitted, and a committee was raised to inquire and report 
upon it. That committee met and was duly organized, and such 
subcommittees were designated as seemed necessary. Consider- 
able inquiry has been made, but nothing definite determined upon. 
It is a large problem, hard to solve, but the subject should be kept 
alive, and I recommend action looking to that end. 



REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION. 

The proceedings of the Council of Administration, whose duty 
it is by the rules and regulations to audit the accounts of the offi- 
cers and to present the same for consideration to the Department 
Encampment, will be laid before you ; they exhibit a most satis- 
factory condition of Department finances. 

The sums on hand to the credit of the several funds, in round 
numbers, are — 

To the Charity Fund $272 

To the General Fund $936 

This state of the finances has caused the suggestion by the 
Council that the per capita tax be reduced from fifteen cents to 
ten cents per quarter, and the charge for badges from sixty-five to 
forty-five cents, both of which recommendations have my full con- 
currence. 

For caution's sake, however, I wish to suggest that for the bal- 
ance of the winter the disbursements from the Charity Fund will 
be very large. The pinching time has come. At our last meeting 
the Relief Committee dispensed $20 ; it might well have dispensed 
twice that sum ; cases now known to the committee will require 
continued relief ; they are deserving cases ; more will arise. There 
are several hundred dollars in the general fund saved to it by the 
fact of the Department's remaining in the old quarters. I suggest 
for your consideration and determination whether it would not be 
well to transfer to the relief fund some of the surplus of the 
general fund. 

"God help the poor!" is a common but a meagre prayer. It 
may do for us to pray that prayer for all the rest, but for our 
Comrades, old and decrepid, for their widows and their children, 
scantily clad, hungry, and cold, "the liberal hand" dispensing 
relief is better than petitions for a blessing. 

Whilst upon the subject of the funds of the Department I call 
your attention to the justice which I think is due to your servants, 
the Assistant Adjutant-General and the Assistant Quartermaster- 
General. I do this now without reserve, because I and you know 
the worth and faithfulness of the Comrades now occupying these 
places, and because as to future occupants some one else than 
ii i\ self must determine it. Proper discharge of the duties they per- 



form for you requires that twice every week they appear at head- 
quarters and devote themselves to the affairs of the Department ; 
this is the regular routine, but it is only a part of then burden. I 
think a salary ought to be attached to these offices ; the Depart- 
ment is able to pay. The Assistant Adjutant-General ought to be 
paid not less than $125 a year, and the Assistant Quartermaster- 
General not less than $75, and any settlement of the question 
should embrace the year now closing. 

INCORPORATION. 

The suggestion of compensation to the Assistant Quartermaster- 
General brings me to speak of another matter as connected with 
that office. Sec. 4, art. VI, chap. Ill, Rules and Regulations, 
require that the Assistant Quai'termaster-General " shall give 
good and sufficient security, to be approved by the Council of 
Administration, for the faithful discharge of his duties." This 
proviso has not been observed since my knowledge of the Depart- 
ment began. Under existing circumstances it is doubtful if an 
enforceable bond can be drawn and executed. We are a voluntary 
association of changing membership ; the obhgee is a volunteer in 
his service of the association, he receives no compensation for his 
labor and care, and in case of loss would by the law of bailments be 
excused on a small showing of care. Under such circumstances 
reliance on the honor of the Comrade holding- the office is safer 
than reliance on any bond he could give ; but this is not business, 
nor is it in accordance with Rules and Regulations. To the end, 
therefore, that the proper course may be entered upon, I recom- 
mend that the incoming Council of Administration be instructed 
that, as soon as may be after their appointment, they assemble 
and take into consideration the feasibility of incorporating either 
itself as such Council or the Department Encampment as such, so 
that there may exist a legally constituted body capable in law of 
appearing in the courts for tne maintenance of its rights. If this 
is best to be done, (for I have no doubt about the feasibility of it,) 
the Council could at once take an enforceable bond. I suggest that 
at the same time it might be well to inquire if such form of corpo- 
ration could be created as would enable the Posts to use it for the 
purpose of enabling their Post Quartermasters to give valid bonds. 



SOLDIER INTERESTS. 

During the year I have received and considered communications 
indicating that an effort is on foot to interest the Grand Army as 
a body, and obtain its influence, in the matter of obtaining from 
Congress a grant of lands or land warrants to each soldier, or, if 
dead, to his heirs, who served honorably in the war of the rebellion. 
Such legislation has been several times attempted, and at the third 
session of the Forty-second Congress a bill reported from the 
proper committee actually passed the House of Representatives, 
but failed in the Senate. It was a queer measure, a compound of 
homestead law and free gift, with settlement provisions that had 
no force. It would have brought confusion into the land system, 
and would have benefited nobody but the lawyers and land- 
sharks. 

An adverse report was made upon it in the Senate, and it died 
the death. 

SENATE BILL 340, 48TH CONGRESS. 

Early in this Congress there was introduced in the Senate bill 
No. 340, entitled "A bill granting public lands to the soldiers of 
the late war of the rebellion.'" 

The bill is plain in terms and honest in import, and is in the 
main just such a bill as ought to pass if any measure on that sub- 
ject ought to be enacted into law. 

The proposal i» that every soldier or sailor who served a period 
less than one year shall have eighty acres of public land ; that all 
who served between one and two years shall have 120 acres, and 
that all who served more than two years shall have 160 acres. 
The right of the soldier to take these tracts is, under the bill, an 
assignable one. If it should pass, every surviving soldier and the 
legal representatives of deceased Comrades could, by an inexpen- 
sive and simple method, at once put then claims in saleable shape, 
and thus reap whatever benefit there is in the bill. The first 
question is, What benefit would there be in it ? 

It was once estimated by competent authority that there would 
be at least 2,000,000 persons entitled to claims under such a bill. 
If each should receive 100 acres, 320,000,000 of acres would be 
absorbed by these claims, or an area equal to that of the States of 
Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin. Minnesota, Iowa. Missouri, Kansas, 



9 

-and Nebraska. I am not in possession of statistics enabling me 
to state what the quantity would be under the pending bill. The 
number of persons who served less than one and less than two 
years I have not yet been able to ascertain, but it is safe to say 
that 220,000,000 acres of claims could be ready for the market 
within a brief period from the passage of the act. 

The whole of the remaining unsurveyed lands of the United 
States, excepting Alaska, is about 518,419,367 acres. Out of this 
deduct the vast mountain chains, the bodies of water, the desert 
land, lands already granted for railroads, schools, and the like, the 
mineral lands, Indian territory, and private land claims, and how 
much will there be left of any real value ? As much as will satisfy 
these soldier claims ? I doubt it ; but suppose there was or is, it 
will take years to survey it. Eight million acres a year is about the 
average speed of the public surveys. At this rate twenty-seven 
years would be required for furnishing the necessary tracts, and 
an indefinite number of years would be required to do the land- 
office work, prehminary to the final patenting of the whole. 

Under such circumstances what would your claims be worth, or 
rather what would they bring. I venture the assertion that ten 
dollars would be the maximum price of an eighty-acre claim, 
fifteen dollars of a 120 acre, and twenty dollars of a claim for 160 
acres. It is my deliberate judgement that half these sums would 
within two years be the extreme of the selling price. 

It is plain that this would mean that a few men would soon be 
the owners of all desirable lands yet remaining to the United 
States, and that our own and the next generation must purchase 
its lands of these speculators and pay their prices. 

I submit that the Grand Army cannot lend itself to a measure 
having such possibilities of evil in it, and that it ought rather to 
oppose it. 

R. E. LEE CAMP, NO. 1, CONFEDERATE VETERANS. 

Myself and other comrades of the Grand Army some time since 
received circulars from an organization calling itself " R. E. Lee 
Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans." It was addressed to 
"Comrades,'' and announced the holding of a fan at Richmond. 
Va., in February next, to raise funds for the indigent and wounded 
soldiers (Confederate) of the late war, and appealed to the patriotic 



10 

soldiers of the Union to unite with them in raising a fund for that 
purpose. Upon reading this circular it seemed to me that its 
purpose was to address the individual conscience and liberality of 
those who had served the Union, and in that light it did not seem 
to require remark, and was both proper and natural, for it is 
beyoud question true that during the war and since there was less 
of mere rancor and more of just appreciation between the soldiers 
of the two armies than found place between those non-combatants 
who fought each other at long range and from the stump or 
through the newspaper press. But I am now in receipt of an 
official circular from headquarters Departmert of Virginia, Grand 
Army of the Republic, commending the cause of R. E. Lee Camp, 
No. 1, to the Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, and 
am also in receipt as well of a general order from the Commander- 
in-Chief of the Grand Army, enclosing a copy of the Confederate 
Veterans' appeal, and asking the opinion of the Department Com- 
manders thereon. From all this I take it that it is considered in 
the Department of Virginia and by the Commander-in-Chief as in 
fact an appeal for aid to the Grand Army in its organized capacity, 
that it is judged in that light that the Commander-in-Chief wants 
an expression as to the proper course to pursue. For myself I 
have no difficulty in settling that question. 

The Grand Army of the Republic is an organized perpetuation 
of the convictions of patriotism that won in the great struggle. 
Its banner is as distinctively the emblem of a patriotism that 
knows no compromise as is the cross the witness of a changeless 
faith. This is its high ideal. In its practice it has never pre- 
tended to a general purpose of beneficence. Its fraternity is for 
the Comrades whose faces never knew a frown when the flag of 
their country was wreathed for victory. Its charity is for those 
of its own household, for those made desolate — need I say by 
whose hands ? Its loyalty means that undivided devotion to the 
country's flag and laws that has in it no place for homage for the 
flag of treason, whether furled or unfurled. I plead for my Com- 
rades and myself that it may be permitted us in the society we 
have formed for preserving our memories of the past and doing 
what we may to increase the stock of loyalty in the rising future — 
that we may be permitted, I say, within its narrowing bounds 



11 

always to live the thought phrased by a departed Comrade, " that 
they who fought for the Union were right, everlastingly right ; 
that they who fought against it were wrong, everlastingly wrong.' 
Such a view ought not to be charged to the unkinduess of bigotry, 
or to the remnant of vengef ulness surviving the old strife. 

For myself, and I believe for you my Comrades, I express the 
sincere wish that the proposed fan for the indigent and maimed 
soldiers of the late war who fought against us may gather in so 
great a harvest that comfort may be brought to the fireside of each 
and every one of the deserving. In our individual capacity let us 
show the liberal hand ; in our associated capacity let us always be 
the Grand Army. 

VISITING ORGANIZATIONS. 

During the year it was the pleasure of the Department to par- 
ticipate in the demonstrations made in this city on the occasion of 
the assembling here of the Society of the Army of the Potomac 
and of the veteran survivors of the Mexican War. The turnout 
on each of these occasions was large, and the Grand Army won for 
itself credit from the community in general, and the thanks and 
commendations of the bodies to whom their escort was tendered. 

MEMORIAL DAY. 

Memorial Day was duly observed ; the concourse at Arlington, 
at the Soldiers' Home, and at the Congressional Cemetery was 
large, evidencing the pleasing fact that the Grand Army has yet a 
place in the heart and memory of the people. 

Not as many of the living Comrades of the Grand Army joined 
in our march to the place of their dead as ought to have done so, 
yet I believe that the column was the largest that ever passed to 
the Virginia shore for the purposes of Memorial Day. 

When I last addressed you it was my painful duty to state the 
fact that by a then recently rendered decision of the Supreme 
Court the title to the Arlington Cemetery had been decreed not to 
be in the United States ; that our departed Comrades had rest by 
the sufferance of a stranger. I am pleased now to be able to say 
that a purchase of the estate has been made, that they sleep now 
in "their fathers house." 



12 



EMPLOYMENT. 



You will hear the report of the Committee on Employment ; but 
I have more to say on that subject than they have said. The 
result in the matter of obtaining employment for deserving 
Comrades has not been as great as it was last year ; but this has 
been no fault of the Committee. They have labored as faithfully 
and assiduously as then- predecessors did. Then* chairman, your 
Senior Vice-Commander, has devoted himself and given of his 
time without stint to this particular service. Circumstances and 
conditions have been against us. The fact that we received a 
considerable recognition last year was remembered when we asked 
for more. But the principal cause of comparative failure, and 
that cause which for all future time bars us out of all desirable 
and honorable places in the appointive civil service of the United 
States, is to be found in the passage of the act approved January 
16, 1883, entitled "An act to regulate and improve the civil 
service of the United States," and in the regulations prescribed 
thereunder. True, in the 7th section of the act it is written down 
" But nothing herein contained shall be construed to take from 
those honorably discharged from the military or naval service any 
preference conferred by the 1754th section of the Kevised Statutes.'' 
and the second subdivision of the twelfth Rule removes, in favor 
of soldiers and sailors, the limit of forty -five years of age enforced 
against other applicants for examination. But these seemingly 
just remembrances of the debt due to the soldiers and sailors are 
empty pretences, the excuses of insincerity, lame apologies tendered 
by the authors of the law and by the framers of the rules, whose in- 
tent and purpose at bottom was to defeat all such, whether soldier 
or civilian, who had lived long enough to supplant the mere rote of 
the text-book by the thousand times better and broader wisdom 
that comes by experience of affairs. There is left to us the menial 
places ; that is, there is for us such poor chance to compete for 
them as is left over after the pushing politician and the social 
Ajax has had his chance and preference ; and I was about to say 
that this is all, but it is not all ; there is left section 1755 of the 
Revised Statutes, which recovimetxh that bankers, merchants, 
manufacturers, and farmers give to our disabled Comrades such 
employment as they have to dispense. This is a Blender reed. It 



13 

seems to me, now that the Government has in fact withdrawn its 
own pretence of preference, that it is cruel irony to continue to 
print its most cheap letter of introduction to others. For one, I 
wish the now canting recitals were off the book, were out of the 
law. Some of you are angry that these things are so, and enquire 
if there is no remedy. Oh, yes ; there is a simple, safe, and sure 
remedy, if only it were right and best to adopt it. There are a 
quarter of a million of us now organized, and half a million more 
who would go along, voters every one. In every doubtful State 
where suffrage is free we hold the balance of power. We could 
dictate such fair terms as had in them only the demand for the 
actual preference for our Comrades which has been so long falsely 
pretended, and enforce them if we would. But this would make 
of us a political body, or would at least ally us with a party. And 
this we could not afford for even so good a cause, for in the end 
destruction of our organization would come of it. I think we may 
and should take such action as shall tend to protect those of our 
number who are in appointive places. There are indications that 
the doctrinaires who have thus far controlled the execution of the 
law will not be content until they have tried all in office by the 
text-book standard. The brood of fledglings swarming annually 
from our poor pretences of colleges, too weak to venture their 
little boats among other rowers on the professional seas, and 
spoiled for work by a half education, naturally turn, while yet their 
memory of rules and formulas remains fresh, to the civil service 
as their safest refuge. They will have the support of the commis- 
sion ; room will be made for them when and where it can. I 
think we may and should do this : Organize a committee of vigi- 
lance to stand by our Comrades, to expose any injustice done 
them, and organize for their defence. This is all I see that there 
is for us to do. At most, but few of the whole Grand Army look 
to office for support, and happy is it that it is so. We might as 
well pocket the disappointments we feel when seeking opportunity 
for some Comrade or for his widowed or dependent ones to earn 
their bread, we are turned away empty handed, knowing as 
we do full well' that many a place is tilled by those who did not 
march our road when all was in the balance. Comrades, we 
are growing old. We are among a younger generation whose 
face is toward the coming day, with whom the past is the dead 



14 

past. There is no immortality for the mortal part. Nations have 
their day and die. That which in the hour of action is the sum 
of all the greatness that mortal man may do with mortal powers, 
the next day is only history, a tale that is told. The foot of our 
sons is in the stirrup ; they are mounting to our seats. They will 
let us tell them of the terrible hour when defeat was suffered or 
victory won, and they will seem to listen and be interested, but all 
the while their eager eyes will be bent on fields beyond where 
their life's battles are to be fought and won. I mean by this that 
we might as well begin to learn to stand aside, and that it is happy 
for us that we may, in the safe retreat of the Post-room, turn our 
backs upon the new fields, and keep fresh in mind the memories of 
that yesterday the full import of whose events we only know. 



REPORT 



COMMITTEE ON THE ADDRESS OF THE COMMANDER. 



The qtiestion raised by the Commander as to the status of Past Post Com- 
manders is one that should be treated fairly, upon dispassionate considera- 
tion. We thei - efore concur in the suggestion that a committee should be 
appointed to consider and report upon the matter at the next semi-annual 
Department Encampment, and we recommend that a committee of five mem- 
bers be appointed for that purpose. 

Recommendation adopted by the Encampment. 

We concur in the recommendation that the incoming Commander be left 
free to exercise his own judgment as to the composition of the Relief Com- 
mittee, and that otherwise the resolution of the last Annual Encampment as 
to the general plan of relief be continued in force. 
Recommendation adopted. 

The recommendation to continue the authority heretofore delegated to a 
committee consisting of the Commander, Ass't Adj't Gen'l, and Ass't Q. M. 
Gen'l, to procure, and remove to, suitable Department Headquarters, meets 
with our decided approval. 

Recommendation adopted. 

We concur in the suggestion of the Council of Administration, as stated by 
the Commander, that the per capita tax and the price of badges may be reduced 
for the coming year; and to that end we propose the following resolution: 

Resolved, That the per capita tax for the year 188-i shall be ten cents per 
quarter, and that, until otherwise ordered, the price of badges shall be forty- 
five cents each. 

Adopted by the Encampment. 

We do not approve the suggestion to transfer any part of the General Fund 
to the Relief Fund. We are of opinion that the Relief Fund will be ample to 
meet all proper requirements: and that, under the proposed reduction of the 
per capita tax, and the probable increase of expenses attendant upon the pro- 
posed removal of Department Headquarters, and the proposed remuneration 
for past services to the Ass't Adj't Gen'l and Ass't Q. M. Gen'l, the General 
Fund may not have at the end of the year more than a reasonable and safe 
margin above the expenses of the year. 
Adopted. 

We do not approve the recommendation to attach salaries to the offices of 
Ass't Adj't Gen'l and Ass't Q. M. Gen'l. But in consideration of the long, 
arduous, and unpaid services of the present incumbents, (except that the 
Ass't Adj't (Jen'l was paid $100 for the year 1882 only,) we recommend that 
the Ass't Adj't Gen'l be paid $150 for the year just expired and that the Ass't 
Q. M. Gen'l be paid $ 100 for the year just expired, and that the future pay- 
ment of salaries be left to future Encampments. 
Adopted. 



16 

The recommendation in regard to instructing the Council of Administra- 
tion to make inquiry, and to take action if found desirable, looking to the- 
incorporation of either the Council of Administration or the Department En- 
campment, as such, meets with our approval. 
Adopted. 

Comrades Gibson, Granger, Gifford, and O'Connor, of this committee, con- 
cur in the views of the Commander in regard to the bill pending in Congress 
to grant lands to all soldiers who served in the late war of the rebellion, the 
Commander's conclusion being that the Grand Army ought not to favor, but 
rather oppose, a measure having such possibilities of evil in it. 
Adopted. 

Comrade Crandall, in view of the fact that a large proportion of the surviv- 
ing soldiers of the late war are residents of the great West, where the vacant 
lands of the Government mostly lie, and that they could and would gladly 
avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by the bill to become land-owners 
by actual location of lands under the terms of the law, cannot think it wise 
for the Grand Army of this Department to place itself in an attitude of hos- 
tility to this measure. 

The committee approve the eminently patriotic and conservative views of 
the Commander in regard to the recent appeal of R. E. Lee Camp of Confede- 
rate Veterans for contributions in aid of a fund for the benefit of indigent 
and wounded soldiers of the late Confederate army. His views as expressed 
are ours also — that individuals of our fraternity may well put forth the gene- 
rous helping hand in whatever direction may come the cry of suffering hu- 
manity; but that, remembering for what cause and for what purposes the 
Grand Army was organized, we say with the Commander, "In our associated 
capacity let us always be the Grand Army." 
Adopted by the Encampment 

The candid, brave, and burning words of the Commander under the head 
of "Employment," and relating to the baneful effects upon the Grand Army 
of the so-called civil service law, and the rules of the civil service framed 
under it, meet with our hearty approval. We regret that so bold, so true, 
and so scathing a criticism upon the hollow fraud of civil service reform, in- 
volving as it does the practical ostracism of the late defenders of the Union, 
cannot be placed in the hands of every voter of the United States. This be- 
ing, of course, impracticable, we recommend that it at least be furnished to 
every Comrade of this Department, and that extra copies be sent to every 
G. A. R. Department Headquarters. 
Adopted. 
In conclusion, to the end that the above recommendation may be practi- 
cally carried into effect, and that the numerous other recommendations and 
opinions submitted by the Commander may be also conveyed to the general 
membership of the Grand Army in this Department, we recommend that 
l,(i(Ki co] lies of the address entire, together with this report, be printed for 
distribution. 

This recommendation was amended by inserting "5,000" in lieu of 
•■ 1.000," and then adopted. 

WM. GIBSON, 
H. J. GIFFORD. 
W. W. GRANGER, 
D. O'CONNOR, 
C. P. CRANDALL. 







Department of the Potomac, G. A. R. 

1884. 



D. S. ALEXANDER, C&mnuinder. 
N. M. Brooks, 8. V. Commander. S. A. H. McKim, ,/. V. Coininamh r. 

Florence DoiiOHipE, Medical Director* Rev. Ben. Swallow, CJiaplain. 

Official Staff. 
C. H. Ingram, AssH Adjutant- General. 
Amos J. Gunning, Asst Quartermaster- General. 
Chas. Matthews, Inspector. 
Fred. Mack, Judge Advocate. 
Dennis O'Connor, Chief Mustering Officer. 

Aides-de-Camp — A. F. Medford, H. E. Weaver, W. B. Brown, M. T. Anderson, 
Richd Henderson, N. B. Prentice, Thos. Hynes, W. W. WihSbep, 
Jos. Burroughs, W. Howard Mills", M. M. Holland. 

Ass't Inspectors— Asa L. Carrier, M. D. Montis, Edw'd Rknaud. 

Council of Administration — N. B. Fithian, F. C. Revels, Levi Nagle, 
J. W. Palmer, D. W. Atwood. 

Delegates to National Encampim nt — Stewart Van Vlikt, ('has. Kim;. 
E. W. Whitaker. 

Alternates M. Mi, Holland, L B. Cutler, Edward Webster. 

Commissioned oil Staff of Commander-in-G/tfef X. M Br6oks, J, ('. Taylpb. 

Ass't Inspector General 11. P. Rotheby. 

Member of National Council Gilbert M. Hinted. 

l'nst Department Commanders P. H Spbague, Jas. T. Smith, Bi F. Hawkes, 

A. H (I. RlOHABDBON, <'i". E. 0OB8ON, 11. DlNOMAN, ('has. D. RoYGB, 

\\ If. ( iiiisoN, S. S. BUBDETT. 



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